Although the metalwork is somewhat corroded in parts, it is fully intact and considered one of the finest surviving Irish examples, alongside those found at Clonmacnoise and Lismore.

Its drop plate (the hollow box-like extension at the end of the crook)[1] shows a human figure in high relief with a long thin nose, spiral ears and a beard that radiates out and intertwines with the designs around him.

It was discovered in 1867 in the bed of the River Laune, near the Lakes of Killarney in County Kerry, by a fisherman who initially mistook it as either a salmon or a gun, before establishing it as a "curious handstick".

Considering it spent an estimated 500–600 years buried under water, it is in good condition, and its structure is fully intact; some of the metal is corroded, and parts of the decorative panels or inserts are lost.

[7] Each side of the crook contains nine representations of imagined or fantastic animals rendered in low relief, with open mouths, front paws, and Ringerike style interlace patterns emanating from their heads before intertwining with their bodies.

[8] The panel is decorated with abstracted interlaced filigree, while the base of the drop shows an animal with large ears, also in high relief.

[13][14] The art historian Griffin Murray describes it as "probably broadly contemporary with the earliest stone church on the island and obviously relates a period of wealth and investment in the monastery at the time.